The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Foot-and-mouth disease confirmed in zoo

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Saturday, Jul 07, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Foot-and-mouth disease confirmed in zoo

Staff Reporter

Expert confirms Mithun died of FMD; two black bucks isolated; a cape buffalo shows signs of disease

Three Mithun were culled on Thursday to contain suspected FMD
Visitors’ movement restricted on the zoo premises

Thiruvananthapuram: The office of the Chief Disease Investigation Officer, Palode, confirmed on Friday evening that the death of Mithun at the city zoo was due to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). The virus has been identified as the ‘O strain.’

Three Mithun were culled on Thursday evening in an attempt to contain what was then suspected to be FMD. The animals were given an intravenous dosage of magnesium sulphate till their hearts stopped beating.

On Friday morning a black buck died at the zoo taking the total number of bucks that died over the past few days to four. Zoo authorities, however, maintain that on July 4 two bucks had died of old age and not of any infection. On Friday evening zoo officials discovered that two more black bucks are showing signs of FMD. The animals — calf and an adult male — were immediately isolated from the herd. On the directions of the technical panel set up to help the zoo manage the situation, animal keepers sprinkled 150 kg of lime around the Mithun enclosure.

The cape buffalo that also showed signs of FMD is being administered gentamycin injections two times a day. A Sulpha-Trimethoprim combination along with a liver stimulant is being mixed with the fodder given to the spotted deer, hog deer, the black buck and the cape buffalo.

Threat still looms

According to the zoo vet C.S. Jayakumar no other species has shown signs of FMD. “There was no rain during the last two days. This has helped. If it starts raining the FMD situation could get worse. The zoo is not yet free of the FMD threat,” he said here on Friday.

Zoo officials continued to restrict and regulate movement of visitors on its premises. On Thursday visitors were not allowed to go near the enclosures housing the deer, buffaloes and the one that housed the Mithun

The Chief Disease Investigation Officer H. Vishwanathan told The Hindu here that cattle and other domestic animals in the district have been administered the FMD vaccine under the disease control project.

“Normally when FMD is confirmed at one place a vaccination drive needs to be done at a radius of 6 km from the site. The drive is done from the 6 km periphery inwards. In this case that is not required,” he said.

It is the Government that has to decide call now whether to temporarily close down the city zoo, he added.

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